Abstract:

I will discuss my experience of coaching students for the Putnam competition at the University of Pittsburgh and Texas Tech University over the past 7 years, how I interacted with extremely bright students, and how it led to creating a “Putnam culture” at both universities. I will then share my experience how the most outstanding 27 students from the Qiuzhen College competed in the shadow Putnam Competition held last December at Tsinghua University. Finally, I will outline general strategies how to develop key skills for attacking challenging problems that often appear on the Putnam exams. These skills are also very useful in solving many other mathematically defined research problems.

Bio:

Cezar Lupu is currently a postdoctoral research scholar at the Yanqi lake Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications (BIMSA) under the mentorship of the world renowned mathematician Shing-Tung Yau. Cezar received his MA and PhD degrees in Pure Mathematics on analysis and number theory from the University of Pittsburgh in the USA. He was a research and teaching fellow at Texas Tech University, and an Academic instructor at Carnegie Mellon University before moving to China in 2021. He has extensive experience in coaching students in preparation for mathematical competitions including  Mathematical Olympiads and Putnam Competition, a premiere mathematical event held annually among the most prestigious North American universities.  As a lecturer at the Qiuzhen College at Tsinghua University, he has prepared and is teaching  a course on creative problem solving aimed at general strategies how to solve mathematical problems.

Time and Venue